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Oregon Increases Sex Offender Registration Requirements

The State of Oregon posts online, in a publicly-accessible registry, information related to around 700 “predatory” or sexually violent sex offenders. A bill introduced in the state legislature in 2011 would have increased the number of sex offenders listed online to more than 14,000. That legislation failed to pass, but another bill, which expanded certain sex offender registration requirements, did.

There are nearly 18,000 convicted sex offenders living in Oregon at any given time. About 3,100 are juvenile offenders. All must register with the state, but less than four percent currently have their information posted on the website of the Oregon State Police (OSP).

That would have changed under Senate Bill 67 (2011 session). According to SB 67, the OSP could post information on the Internet about all of the state’s registered sex offenders, whether they are on active supervision or not and whether or not they are classified as predatory or violent.

For adult offenders who are not designated predatory, SB 67 would have allowed the OSP to post their name, date of birth, city of residence, zip code, physical description, a contact name and telephone number at the supervising agency, and the name of any higher education institutions where the offender may be working or attending classes. Online information about juvenile sex offenders would not include a physical description or photo, and only a birth year would be listed.

The intent of SB 67 was to make information about all registered sex offenders publicly available by city, county or zip code, according to OSP Registry Manager Vi Beaty.
However, unlike predatory sex offender information, which is mapped within a 1-mile radius of their registered address, the postings for non-predatory sex offenders would not be made available in map form.

“The public can pull their own lists,” said Beaty. But if they want more specific information about a particular non-predatory offender, they would need to call the OSP and provide a public safety justification for their request.

SB 67 was referred to a committee upon adjournment of the Oregon legislature in June 2011, and did not pass. Similar legislation will likely be introduced in the future.

Another bill related to sex offender registration requirements in Oregon did pass, however. House Bill 3204 (2011 session) requires sex offenders to register in Oregon if they were convicted of a sex offense in a different state and are required to register in that state. Further, sex offenders who do not reside in Oregon, but who work or attend school in the state, also have to register.

Sex offenders must register within 10 days following their “discharge, release on parole, post-prison supervision or other supervised or conditional release”; within 10 days of a change of residence; annually within 10 days of their birth date; and within 10 days of working at or attending an institution of higher learning, or of a change in work or attendance status at an institution of higher learning.

HB 3204 also created an affirmative defense to a charge of failure to report or register as a sex offender: If the person “reported, in person, within 10 days of a change of residence to the Department of State Police, a city police department or a county sheriff’s office, in the county of the person’s new residence,” provided that they have “otherwise complied with all reporting requirements.”

HB 3204 was signed into law by Governor John Kitzhaber on August 2, 2011, and went into effect the same day.

Sources: The Statesman Journal, www.katu.com, www.leg.state.or.us

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